History with Vue

"I had played with a number of 3D packages from magazine CDs but never got into it.
Then, I tried out Truespace 3.2 about 5 years ago.
More recently, I have used Poser figures more and more, then Google Sketchup which is great fun to use, and, even better, it can be imported into Vue 6 Infinite."

"When I started to try Vue 5 Esprit, I didn't use it much.
But when I began to get some good results and wanted more power, it led me to Vue 5 Infinite.

I immediately fell in love with the EcoSystem technology. I could finally begin to create some of the scenes I could see in my mind!

So, I sidegraded to Vue 6 Infinite.
I have never regretted this decision."

A Cyclical Process

"The project did not proceed from concept to finished art as such – it was a cyclical process.
This project has been on the go for a couple of months."

"Let me illustrate that process.
"First contact" image began life as a simple daylight render, which suggested an art gallery.
I wanted to tell a story rather than just create an architectural render, so I wondered what would happen in a gallery.
And I came up with the concept of two people choosing an art gallery as a neutral meeting place for a date.
And it went from there."

"The whole idea of "Le Bisou" is to create an image where the characters have all climbed out of their paintings to party, but they have to climb back in because the night watchman is coming, but in their haste, they leave beer cans and other things behind.
This would be a story told with three scenes - one of the party, and the second of the characters climbing back in, and the third of the nightwatchman looking round wondering what is going on."

Project Steps

"First Contact"

1) I developed the building in Google Sketchup, and created the first version of the "First Contact".
The roof is open to get a lot of light in as you would get in an art gallery, but it didn't look right.
So, in version 2 (the first one I posted on Cornucopia3D) I added roof trusses, and this made a big difference.

2) Thanks to the great Sketchup Import available in Vue 6 Infinite, I can import this model directly, with no need to convert to another 3D format.

3) I also wanted to add more details, so I created some props in Sketchup and imported them into the scene.

4) Now the floor reflections reflect a realistic roof.
I also added blurred reflections, and modified the wood panelling texture to even the luminosity, making tiling much easier.

5) To avoid huge render times, I kept the soft shadow quality to +4.0 which left some grainy shadows which have been blurred in postwork, but increasing this value would produce smoother rendered shadows.

"Le Bisou"

"Le Bisou" is a development of the basic concept.
The concept was that the paintings come alive at night, and "Le Bisou" is the first step in this.
I wanted to see how easy it would be to make a Poser figure and a flat image look joined seamlessly as if the figure was climbing out of the painting."

"I also wanted to try lighting the scene with area lighting only, with a touch of volumetric lighting for effect.
I used blurred reflections, luminosity flattening on wood panelling textures, and a scene lit only with area lights."

"I love to portray the subtleties of human relationships in my images, and this one was about two people meeting for the first time.
One viewer commented that they showed a mixture of "anticipation and hesitation" which is exactly what I was trying to show."

Inspiration

"It's hard to isolate individual influences since I draw from so many sources.
A number of artists on Cornucopia3D and Renderosity produce consistently good images with Vue - it shows that I still have more to learn, and that I haven't got the best out of Vue yet!"

"The computer is my sketchbook, so the concepts, ideas and the art tend to develop in parallel.
My workflow is cyclical rather than linear.
As I create and render scenes, my ideas develop and progress, which affects the scene, which in turn leads to new ideas and so on until I think “that’s it now”."

"A lot of inspiration for content comes from my own spiritual journey as a Christian, and the journeys of the people I know.
I have also had many interesting conversations about art and spirituality with people of many faiths or no faith."

"Moreover, my father is an architect, so creativity, and an eye for details is in my genes.
It also helps explain my recent interest in using Vue for architectural renders.
We’ve talked about me producing some of his current design projects in 3D."